
Garden of Eden
If Adam did not die the day he ate of the fruit, then the Bible would make God a liar and Satan told the truth. Did Adam die the day he ate? The issue of Adam’s death is a thorny problem for some. Yet the facts are clear that God said the day you eat you will die. Part of the issue is the belief that God promised Adam the penalty of physical or biological death. Man and Wife Get’s Death Penalty?
Physical Death?
In determining the answer to the question of Adam’s death, it is important to note that he was created outside the garden. He had no access to the tree of life which God placed in paradise. He like the rest of God’s creation sustained his life through his environment. Animals, insects, fowl and fish consumed their food from their environment. That means they ate one another and other plants. Death existed as a natural phenomenon in the creation order.
Likewise, Adam was also capable of dying as this is man’s natural biological process. Further, it is evident that when God placed Adam in the garden of Eden and gave him the command, upon his disobedience, he did not physically die . Adam lived to be 930 years of age and bore more sons and daughters, Gen. 5:4-5. That’s hardly a description of physical death. Yet the command was the day you eat you will die.
Corporate Death
When we understand that God placed Adam under a covenant, gave him the law of that covenant with the power of making a choice, the penalty of which was immediate death the day he ate. No one questions that Adam ate. The conclusion is inescapable that he died the same day. His death was spiritual. He broke the covenant in transgressing the law which God (more…)